RachelWatch Special Edition:The Year in Frivolity

Many, if not most, fans of The Rachel Maddow Show first become devoted to it for the earnest, geekball dedication to information depth and accuracy that Rachel and her staff all seem to share.

True to form, the show had many amazing, very serious moments this year. Rachel went to the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq, chased down political candidates, gave a rousing Presidential speech, and used her formidable interview skills and incisive commentary to become the right wing’s scariest campfire story.

That said, it’s been a long, hard year, and I think we all deserve a dose of the other side of The Rachel Maddow Show’s charm: Every now and then, they get a little goofy.

Please enjoy this biased and highly unscientific selection of some of the year’s best silliness. If you’d like a little more meat, I encourage you to check out the growing collection of #MaddowMoments on the always excellent MaddowBlog.

January began, as it should, with an eye toward the future. The future of television!

February, long unfairly stereotyped as a dreary month, turned out to hold untold highs and lows.

Rachel read a Seussian bedtime story to her viewers…

… And then ensured that no one in her audience would ever sleep again by running Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s infamous “demon sheep” ad. No, it’s not really as bad as you remembered. It’s much, much worse.

If you haven’t seen this, save yourself a computer screen and swallow that beverage before clicking.

And please remember: The TRMS folks are professionals. Messing around with demon sheep on your own can lead to horrific consequences.

Rachel also kicked off a year-long vagabond shoes theme by heading to New Orleans to take a look at the city’s (slow) recovery and help cheer the Saints toward a Super Bowl victory.

And then she left, secure and happy in the knowledge that all the city’s problems were behind it.

March, tired of the whole lion business, decided to go twelve times scarier and roar in like Liz Cheney. Rachel had the moxie to follow the conspiracy Ms. Cheney had sniffed out to its very roots – no matter how deep they might go.